Making his first appearance since hurting his shoulder in the same building on Oct. 13, Brodeur got more than just a game under his belt.

He made a spectacular diving stop back towards the open net to rob Phil Kessel with the blade of his goalie stick at 5:58 of the third period and was thrilled by the way his shoulder responded.

“That was a good test for my shoulder,” Brodeur said. “That’s exactly the way I got hurt. I was able to get up with no pain, nothing. I was happy about that. I had a little smile on my face when I got up.

“It’s always tough to come back from an injury when you know you didn’t fix it, just rehabbed it. It’s different than when you do a surgery. To me it was big test.”

“Marty has worked his butt off to rehab and I don’t feel we did a good job around him to support him,” DeBoer said.

He criticized the way the Devils and Leafs traded goals.

“We can’t play that way,” DeBoer said. “We can’t give up a chance to get a chance.”

Brodeur was pleased about his shoulder.

“I felt OK. I think the shoulder was good,” Brodeur said. “My game is a little different. I felt good later on. I think it’s just that spark of knowing I’m able to go full out. It took me a little while to do that.

“I was a little slow moving around just because I didn’t trust it. I made a couple of saves on the fifth goal and I moved really quick. That kind of gave me an idea of how I was able to push. After that I felt really confident and played well.”

DeBoer was asked if Brodeur looked rusty.

“Well, he’s been out for a while,” the coach said. “He battled hard to come back. He could easily have said, ‘Give me another week’ and he didn’t. We should’ve responded to that to that better and supported him better.”